2010-08-18: From Smasher to Smashed
Summary: Three color-co-ordinated heroes take down some terrorists. Location: Wall Street, NYC Participants: Captain America, Power Girl, Stargirl Rating: PG-13 for comic book violence Despite all the security precautions taken in and around Wall Street, it appears there's just no way it can be prepared for -everything-. Case in point...about twenty minutes ago, the New York Stock Exchange was stormed by a group of masked beret-wearing soldiers in white, led by a black-caped man bearing a spiked mace. They have identified themselves as the Underground Liberated Totally Integrated Mobile Army To Unite Mankind...better known as ULTIMATUM. Their leader calls himself the "Flag Smasher." A name he seems to have demonstrated by pulling down the American Flag outside the exchange and burning it. They haven't given any demands, but they have lots of hostages and claim to have an explosive device inside the building. Steve Rogers has been hesitant to step out in costume since "waking up" but this was something he simply couldn't ignore. He's overlooking the building from the neighboring rooftop, frowning down at the sight below and considering the best routes inside. Three dozen terrorists and their leader, a bomb, and lots of hostages...all in a day's work, right? Still, at this point he's definitely wishing he had some back-up. And backup has arrived, in the form of a curvy blonde in a white leotard and red cape who's looking really, really annoyed. Power Girl begins to descend from the sky towards the disturbance, and doesn't quite touch down. She's tall to begin with, but it's amazing how much more imposing one can look from a couple feet in the air. "Berets? You're kidding me, right? /Please/ tell me you're not evil mimes. I do not need that on my resume." Peej casts a glance at the burning flag, and a quick gust of icy breath puts a stop to /that/ little so-called-demonstration of free speech. Led like a leash, Stargirl floats through the streets, "I knew something was wrong!" she lets out excitedly. With a thrilling smile, she careens head-on toward the goons, "Hey! I better teach you how to demonstrate properly!" she says, even acknowledging her presence to the thugs. Well, that was not entirely unexpected. Needless to say, the goons start to unload with their automatic rifles towards both the incoming heroes, having little idea exactly what they are or aren't capable of. A group of about four break off and start towards the doors of the Stock Exchange to join their fellows within, possibly to warn them of the new arrivals...or to tell them to detonate the bomb. Their leader hangs near the back, pointing his mace towards Power Girl and...spouting off a bunch of neo-anarchist nonsense that nobody really wants to listen to, anyway. Blah Blah blah.... The arrival of the two heroines certainly provides a great distraction, and Captain America leaps from his rooftop, making use of several flagpoles, balconies, ledges, and other protrusions to descend the long distance to the ground. As he gets within about two stories of the ground, he pushes away from the wall with powerful legs, giving him the angle he needs to launch his shield, ricocheting it off of a pillar and bringing it right across the noggins of all four of the terrorists who were trying to flee inside in rapid succession, before the disc bounces off an opposite pillar, and returns right to the Sentinel of Liberty's hand just as he touches down on the ground. "You get one chance to surrender peacefully. I suggest you boys take it." The second star-spangled crimefighter to arrive comments as he stands up straight, looking quite unconcerned about the number of guns pointed his way. Power Girl has to take a moment to stare at the man with the shield. One of the first things she did when she got to this world was study the history, comparing it to that of the Earth she knew. She's familiar with that costume. Maybe it's a time travel thing? She shakes her head, clearing her mind of that distraction for the time being. "Do what the man says," she says, and picks up one of the guns the now-unconscious men dropped. Idly, she twists it into a pretzel like shape with her hands. Seemingly led by her power staff, Stargirl has to pause in order to concentrate and erect a forcefield, which deflects the bullets the thugs shoot at her. She doesn't seem deterred by the shooting however, but stretches the field as soon as she sees some onlookers try to sneak their heads around the corner to see what is going on, "Watch out! Stay back!" she calls out. A few of the goons do indeed drop their weapons, whether out of panic or common sense. They're not all apparently as fanatic as their leader. That, and several of them have indeed caught sight of the person asking them to surrender. Rational thought about "how is that possible" isn't really possible at the moment. Their leader, however, doesn't seem at all put off. Indeed, he seems actually enraged by the sight of Captain America, raising his mace and charging towards him with an inarticulate growl. Captain America turns to face the onrushing attacker, bringing his shield up to deflect the swing of the mace off to one side, sending a quick punch to Flag-Smasher's solar-plexus, and following up with a spinning bash with the "Flat" front of his shield, right into the villain's kisser. He drops like a sack of potatoes. That leaves about a dozen terrorists still armed and with a little fight in them. They level their weapons against all three heroes equally, unleashing more automatic fire...oh, and one of them throws a grenade at Power Girl. "Stop!" Stargirl lets out and bolts of electricity surge from the mysterious, cosmic power staff, darting out toward the thugs. Only, the powerful energy doesn't strike them, but their guns. The young girl doesn't have the heart to strike the evil, murderous villains, instead breaking their weapons as quicker they can use them. She lands on the steps of the Stock Market and smiles proudly, "Wow! Great!" she lets out, eyeing Captain America's actions too. Power Girl is a blur of red, white and blue for half a second, and disappears, taking the grenade with her. She's back just a moment before the grenade can be heard exploding somewhere far, far above them. The bullets mostly go ignored, though she does take the time to catch a few of them in mid-air with her hand. She's a little less gentle, and simply grabs one of the men, and swings him by the ankle into his comrades. A few times. Hey, they're all still breathing when she's done, so it's totally okay, right? "Consider a new career path," she says to ones still conscious. Captain America's attention is immediately on the crowd, making sure none of them were hit by stray gunfire or whatnot. Seeing that the police have them fairly well cordoned-off, he turns his attention to the two ladies, gesturing towards Stargirl, "Miss, I need you to stay here and help the police get these men properly apprehended. We'll be right back." His attention turns to Power Girl, "They claimed to have a bomb inside. We need to clear the way for the bomb squad ASAP." And with that, he's racing for the doors, whether Power Girl is coming or not. Stargirl seems struck by reality hearing Captain America's decisive words, "Oh sure," she says, but sounds stupid saying them and mutters at her uselessness. She then realizes something, "I can help...somehow!" she lets out, trapsing up the steps after the hero. She stops at the door and looks at the Power Girl'd knockouts, "Oh...well...I'll deliver you guys to the police first," she tells herself, scooping them into a forcefield bubble, carrying them to the police barricades. "Thank you," Power Girl says with a nod to the younger girl with the big stick. She can totally be polite sometimes. Every once and a while. And then she's right on his heels. If only because running or flying right past him seems a little rude, and she's once again finding someone just a little too Clark-like to get snarky with. "This way," she says, and points to the wall she's currently looking through. And then promptly heat-visions them a nice new door. Cap moves swiftly through the new door, taking out two terrorists with a simultaneous shield-bash and side-kick, before hurling the shield to take down three more in a multiple-ricochet shot. That's not to say there isn't anything for Power Girl and/or Stargirl to do...there's another dozen or so bad guys here, and most of them have guns trained on a group of civilians hunkered down on the ground.... Oh, and off in one corner is a pair that seem to be huddled around a large duffel bag.... "Where do you think you're goin' little girl? Leave it to the adults!" a cat-call comes from the crowd pushing against the barricade. Stargirl drops the thugs next the police cruisers and smirks, "You're welcome," she mutters sarcastically. One police officer does thank her, "Some friends of mine might be in danger," she tells him and soars back toward the Stock Market. "Where's the boom?" a stupid man asks and gets threatened by the police. Oh, hey, look, another blur of very curvy motion, and Power Girl is holding several guns, and crunching them into a ball. Which she then throws at another goon. She looks at the duffel bag, and makes with the X-ray vision. The duffel bag contents do look very bomb-like. However there are several components sitting around -outside- the bag, and there are no sounds, lights, or any other indicators that would indicate that the explosive is actually -armed- yet. Which is probably what those two goons are working on. Captain America seems content to let the well-built heroine handle it for now, as he's taking a few moments to untie the police and security officers the terrorists rounded up, to allow them to take charge of the rapidly-defeated goons. Not that a few of them aren't trying to bolt.... Soaring to the door of the Stock Market, Stargirl comes face to face with a bolting goon, who knocks her down, "Hey!" she says, in an unphased way. His partner tries to kick the girl, but she raises her staff and lets out, "Cut it out!" Both bolting thugs float up off the floor, "Whooaaa!" the captured men say and Stargirl gets up so she can give them both a look of disapproval. Power Girl simply walks up behind the two that are working on assembling the bomb, and clears her throat. "You can either drop what you're doing, or I drop you. Into the Hudson. Or maybe the East River. Heck, I could drop you in the Nile, but you'd pass out from travelling at that speed unprotected..." And just like that...it's over. The police storm the building and take the surrendered and/or unconscious ULTIMATUM goons into custody, getting the hostages out in an orderly fashion and taking care of the bomb components. In the midst of all this, Captain America approaches the two women, offering a grateful smile, "Thanks for your help. This would've been a lot harder without you two." And had a much greater chance of bystanders getting hurt, but that goes without saying. "If you're not inclined to stick around and talk to the police, I can handle that side of things." Floating into the ante-chamber to find Cap and Power Girlie, Stargirl smiles at the polite Captain America, "Sure!" she lets out in an honest way, "It was totally dangerous. Wow," she lets out with a sigh, thinking about the huge takeover of the Stock Market. "Are you okay, Mister?" she asks in a confused way. "Are you really..." Power Girl points to his costume. Then his shield. "The original?" She looks a little stunned, and she's almost tempted to give him an X-Ray once over to make sure he's not a robot or someone who's had a /lot/ of plastic surgery and a really good tailor. "Yes, I am. It's a bit of a long story...but I suspect you'll probably be hearing about it soon." Captain America admits, glancing to Stargirl and nodding, "I'm fine...why do you ask?" He glances down, just to make sure he didn't take a hit and not notice it. Adrenaline can do that sometimes. "I'm sorry...I didn't catch your names? I'm afraid I'm not entirely read up on who's who in the costumed adventurer set these days." Stargirl scratches her head and is appearently needs a reminder, "The original what?" she asks and then smiles at the flag guy again, "Oh sorry, I was just afraid you got shot or whatever," she tells him. "I'm Stargirl!" she says with a broad smile. "Power Girl. An I look forward to reading about it," she tells Captain, then looks to Stargirl. "Check your history textbook when you get home," she advises Stargirl, quietly. "They...actually put me in textbooks?" Cap looks surprised and somewhat daunted by that prospect. He never considered himself anything but another soldier. If a more colorful and highly-trained one. Of course, on the opposite side of the spectrum, he's not very used to people that don't recognize him on site. Still, he extends the non-shield-bearing hand towards Stargirl and smiles, "Captain America. Pleased to meet you, Stargirl." Stargirl smirks a bit as Power Girl tells her what's up, "I get A's in history, gawd," she complains, then studies Captain America with a rub of her chin. "Oh!" she lets out with an embarrassed blush, "Oh my gawd, I'm so embarrassed. It's so good to meet you too!" "Well," Power Girl says to Stargirl, "It's not like the pictures were in color," she says, and tries to sound comforting. She's not very good at comforting. She doesn't seem to be gushing, or awed. You have dinner with Superman enough times, the novelty of those sort of things wears off. Plus, he didn't exist on her Earth. "It's a pleasure, Captain. An honor, even." There's still a certain amount of respect to be paid, of course. "The honor's all mine, Power Girl. I'm just glad to see there have been plenty of people who've worked to keep the people safe in my...absence." That seems about as good a word to describe it as any. Captain America smiles once more, then jerks his thumb in the direction of the incoming police detectives."Now if you two ladies will excuse me, I should probably make a statement." Stargirl smiles, "This is totally cool," she mutters and tries to clear her throat, "I mean, of course Captain," she says, trying to sound like a professional. She smiles and nudges Power Girl, "Like that was Captain America right?" she whispers. "Uh, yeah, you do that. I don't really... do well with the press. And I'm pretty sure one of those reporters is from Fox. There's kind of this lawsuit... nevermind." Probably best left unsaid. She turns to Stargirl when he's gone. "I think it was. His pulse didn't go all funny like most people do when they lie. So it's either him, or he's crazy." The reporters might be disappointed, as Captain America doesn't really give them much of a statement. He's far more concerned about making sure he's doing all he can to help the police investigate and settle the matter. Still, there will certainly be news stories going out tomorrow, even if they might not have as much information as they might like. "Oh" Stargirl says to Power Girl, "Well, let's not hog all his press. I'm gonna leave, kay?" she tells her friend.